NBA considering expansion?

How much of a cut did the league get when Les (or any other owner) sold the team?

 

If the NBA did do the 2 team expansion, obviously Seattle should get their team back and then maybe Austin gets a team?(Don't know if they have a large enough arena in that town). Then move the Pelicans and the Grizzlies to the East?

 

hopefully tillmen loses his mind and moves the team so silver can let a new owner set up shop as katy's new expansion team.

 

The Til Man had a heart attack reading this post. Not only is he losing money in the revenue sharing aspect because now he gets 1/32 instead of 1/30, but he now has 20 fewer games to hawk his Landry's products.

 

Gonna be a tough sell. For the business side of things of half the league that don't make the playoffs, that's 20 less games worth of money lost. For perennial bottom dwellers like the Knicks, losing 20 broadcasted games in the NY market is huge.

I like your idea, but there has to be incentives for the teams that don't make the playoffs for the owners to agree to a 62 game season.

 

I don't think the owners are going for less games, they had to make concessions that they weren't gung-ho about with the pandemic. If they had their way, in an ideal situation, I think owners would make season longer, ramping up to 84 or 86. But, cut the rate of back to back games. The season would go from Oct - Jul. With the two teams added.

 

Nah, it would be Vegas before anywhere else. They have a brand new arena and all of the infrastructure already in place. Not to mention how incredibly well the NHL expansion experience went for them. The only way it’s not Vegas is if the city is too broke to support it after COVID, which is a possibility.

 

1) Seattle
2) Las Vegas or Vancouver

Move Memphis to the East

 

Nah he gets a cut of any expansion fee though - a 150 million cash infusion can really help a brother out.

 

Seattle better get a team before Vegas. And they better be able to be the SuperSonics.

 

Seattle mayor ‘pretty optimistic’ about Sonics return after talk with NBA commissioner

SEATTLE — Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan recently spoke with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and left feeling "pretty optimistic" about the prospects of a return of the Seattle Sonics.

Durkan told KING 5 she spoke with Silver via phone just before Christmas after the commissioner let it slip that the league was re-examining expansion prospects and that Seattle was at the top of the list.

Durkan acknowledged, in the interview with KING 5, that she has maintained regular contact with Silver and has recently attended NBA games with him.

"I've met him on a number of occasions,” Durkan said. “I actually was a guest of his at some games in New Orleans when I was down there for conference. Number one, the commissioner never gets ahead of the owners. And number two, if you want a city that wants a team, don't get ahead of either of them. But it is very good news for the city of Seattle that they are thinking of an expansion team. And I was honest with him. He knows Seattle wants to be at the front of the line. We're where the team should be. But we will be respecting them as they move forward to their ownership because the (owners), you know, has to approve it."

She continued, "I think it's real. But I think again, the commissioner is going to, you know, consult the ownership, and the ownership for the first time itself is being very public that they think it is probably a good idea for basketball. Part of that is the COVID economics. Part of it is the economics of sports. But look, there's no city that I think is better positioned to be successful. We're going to have the best arena in the country. I'm not just saying that when people walk in that building, they will be amazed. We are a city that even with COVID, when we come out of COVID, we have so much upside here."

It's no secret that the NBA has been hemorrhaging millions of dollars since the start of the pandemic, forced to play in fan-free venues and everything that goes along with it. Silver has long suggested expansion was not on the horizon and not being discussed.

That's why his change in tone in December raised eyebrows and was seen as a message. An expansion fee worth perhaps billions of dollars would be split among league owners and not shared with players, thus providing an economic infusion for struggling franchises.

Durkan says she believes expansion could be on the table sooner than people think.

"I think he's not going to get ahead of the (owners),” Durkan said. “They've got to make the decision there first. I think that him saying it publicly means that they are very seriously considering it, and if you look at how sports moves, I don't think it's going to be a long multiyear process. I think it can be a shorter process than that, but it might be, you know, more than one year. I think first you got to get the ownership group in line. And they've got to decide what an expansion team price could look like. And how they choose the cities that goes to. As we know, there's also teams that are underperforming in the NBA, so they have to look at the economics in those cities and make sure that the teams they have are competitive. So they've got to look top to bottom as they're coming out of COVID and went through a very different season than they had before."
...
"I think that, you know, the ownership group of the Kraken has the best connections,” Durkan said. “Tim Leiweke, he has been involved in a number of those organizations. They built this arena, so it's basketball NBA ready. So, I don't think that the right ownership group will necessarily be the obstacle. I think that getting the owners to the place where they're willing to do it, making a price that is one that's market reasonable is going to be the real challenge."

The mayor says she also believes after talking with the commissioner that Silver knows the city is perfectly aligned to host a NBA franchise, again.

"I think it was a very positive conversation,” Durkan said. “I think he has said publicly that Seattle is at the top of the list. Look, if there's basketball karma, we'll get the Sonics. If there's economics involved, we'll get the Sonics. If there's just smart, what's the best city in America, we'll get the Sonics. So, I'm pretty optimistic."

Full article

 

Unnecessary for the mayor to point out that the franchise fee would be split between the owners and not the players. Those are the kinds of details you shouldn’t advertise so readily when you want an expansion team to come to fruition. Not that the players are in much of a position to demand a cut; but it doesn’t help with imaging

 

My bet is Seattle then Vegas.

Both have new arenas and would sell out season tickets.

 

If Vegas gets a team, I hope it captures the culture a little bit. Maybe the "Gamblers" is a bit too precise. But most animal names just feel wrong for that city. Maybe "Wombats" would work? Cant be anything about Indians or guns. Hmmm. Radioactives ? The Nuclear? The Vegas Atom Splitters?

 

I've been saying Austin!

 

NBA May Soon Announce Seattle, Las Vegas Expansion Plans

The NBA is playing preseason games in Seattle and Las Vegas at the end of September and beginning of October. It may not be long before regular season games are played in both cities as well.

Willie Ramirez of the AP reports that sources have told him that the NBA wants to announce expansion plans to both Seattle and Las Vegas during this preseason. It's long been the expectation that when the NBA expands that Seattle and Las Vegas would be near the top of the list of cities under consideration.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver has repeatedly said that the NBA hopes to return to Seattle with a franchise at some point. Silver has also praised Las Vegas for all they've done with NBA Summer League, as well as welcoming teams from other professional leagues like the NFL and NHL. The NBA has also called out the Seattle Storm and Las Vegas Aces as WNBA success stories.

It should be noted that Silver is regularly asked about expansion and has always remained non-committal. In recent press conferences, Silver has said that the league "dusted off some expansion analysis", but said that nothing is imminent as far as adding new franchises.

 

Rockets to the East?

Nevermind…probably Memphis and New Orleans